Innovation Starts with Standards

Don’t change the base. Lift it. Innovation happens when contribution becomes the edge.

You try to stand out. They should use your product, not your competitor’s.

So what do you do? You look for a competitive edge. You differentiate. You change how people work. But at what cost?

The Illusion of Differentiation

Change is inevitable. But when we change to stand out, we sacrifice the one thing we have in common: standards. This hurts innovation.

There’s an illusion that if you differentiate, you automatically improve, and therefore innovate.

But what happens when you change the basics? You demolish foundations industries are built on. You disrupt the mental models people rely on. You reset muscle memory, increase human error and force users to rebuild momentum.

Is that innovation—or disruption dressed as progress?

The Hardware-Software Gap

If you look at hardware, you see that standards are everywhere. You can’t push a product to market without compliance to standards. All the gates, checks, audits and certifications protect the firm foundation the industry depends on.

If you want change the standards, you have to contribute. That doesn’t mean there’s no innovation. On the contrary. Companies focus all their resources on improving what’s built on top of those foundations—the systems and tools that can be integrated and replaced. Lower risk of change. More opportunity for improvement.

So, why do we stop at domain standards when we build software? Why do we have the liberty to invent our own models, semantics and extensions?

If users work with software built on the same standards, the same foundation, they stay productive. You improve the workflow. Make it the same but better, not different.

This liberty to experiment and evolve creates momentum: no big, irreversible transitions. I’ve seen what happens when products rely on the difference instead of the default.

Adoption never catches up with potential.

A Call to Contribute

Start standardizing industries. Help standardize software.

How? Be more transparent. Build in public. Contribute and implement standards. Share your systems and your semantics, and document your ideas.

Protect your IP—but promote the idea. The idea of changing the industry together.

Don’t fiddle with the foundations. Get everyone on the same page. Use the same protocols. Stick to shared formats. Make systems easy to exchange.

People who build in public—and with the public—earn trust and raise the bar for everyone.

That kind of contribution grows the pie, not just your slice.

Closing

Imagine a world where we work together, get more done with less and use resources wisely.

Collaborations and contributions that achieve more than ever before. Where you and your competition both contribute, and the industry rises.

Don’t change the base. Lift it.